Строй современного английского языка
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| Chapter XIX
THE CONJUNCTION Taking up the definition of a conjunction given above in cur general survey of parts of speech, we must first of all, just as we have done with prepositions, consider the question of the meaning of conjunctions. Many authors, in defining a conjunction, limit themselves to indicating that they serve to connect words (or parts of the sentence) and clauses. 1 This would seem to imply that conjunctions have no meaning of their own, that is, that they do not themselves express any phenomena of the extralinguistic world. This is untenable, as may be very easily shown by the simplest examples. Compare, for instance, the two sentences, He came because it was late, and He came though it was late. The different conjunctions obviously express different real relations between two extralinguistic phenomena: his coming and its being late. The causal connection between them exists outside the language, and so does the concessive relation expressed in the latter of the two sentences. There is no difference whatever in the grammatical structure of the two sentences: the difference lies only in the meanings of the two conjunctions. The same observation can be made on comparing the two sentences, We will come to see you before he comes back, and We will come to see you after he comes back, and also in a number of other cases. All this goes to prove that every conjunction has its own meaning, expressing some connection or other existing between phenomena in extralinguistic reality. So far our reasoning and our conclusions have been the same as in the case of prepositions. Now, however, comes a point in which conjunctions are different from prepositions. When discussing prepositions, we noted that in a certain number of cases the use of a given preposition is predicted by the preceding word: thus the verb depend can only be followed by the preposition on (or upon), the adjective characteristic only by the preposition of, etc. In such cases the preposition has no meaning of its own. Conjunctions in this respect are entirely different. The use of a conjunction is never predicted by any preceding word. We will no longer inquire into the meanings of conjunctions, as this is a question of lexicology rather than grammar. In studying the syntactical functions of conjunctions, we have, just as with prepositions, to distinguish between two levels — that of phrases and that of sentences. On the phrase level it must be said that conjunctions connect words and phrases. It is the so-called co-ordinating conjunctions that are found here, and only very rarely subordinating ones. 1 See, for example, Грамматика русского языка, т. I, стр. 665. Prepositions and Conjunctions 157 O n the sentence level it must be said that conjunctions connect clauses (of different kinds). Here we find both so-called co-ordinating and so-called subordinating conjunctions. The division of conjunctions into co-ordinating and subordinating is one that can hardly be dealt with outside syntax: co-ordinating conjunctions imply co-ordination of clauses, and subordinating conjunctions imply subordination of clauses. So we shall have to look again into this question when we come to syntax. 1 Here it will be sufficient to say that there is nothing in the conjunction itself to show whether it is co-ordinating or subordinating, and even in the structure of the clauses there is no unmistakable sign of this (as is the case, for instance, with word order in Modern German). Conjunctions can sometimes lose their connecting function, as is the case with the conjunction if in sentences expressing wish, like the following: If only she might play the question loud enough to reach the ears of this Paul Steitler. (BUECHNER) Probably we shall have to say that if here is no longer a conjunction but a particle. We will consider such cases in Syntax as well.2 PREPOSITIONS AND CONJUNCTIONS In comparing prepositions with co-ordinating and subordinating conjunctions we cannot fail to notice that while prepositions have nothing in common with co-ordinating conjunctions, some prepositions are very close in meaning to subordinating conjunctions, and in some cases a preposition and a subordinating conjunction sound exactly the same. As examples of similarity in meaning we may give, for instance, such phrases and clauses: during his illness = while he was ill', examples of complete identity in meaning and sound are the words before, after, since. All this presents us with intricate problems. On the one hand, it seems doubtful whether we are right in uniting subordinating conjunctions (that is, words like when, as, after, before, since) together with co-ordinating conjunctions (that is, words like and, but, or) into one part of speech and separating them from prepositions (that is, words like of, from, after, before, since), with which they obviously have much more in common. On the other hand, it remains doubtful how we should treat the relations between the preposition after and the conjunction after (and similarly, before and since). None of the treatments so far proposed seems satisfactory. One way is to say, there is the word after, which may function both as a preposition and as a conjunction. But then the question 1 See below, p. 315 ff. 2 See below, Chapter XXXVII, p. 293 ff, |